Cartoonist Scott Chantler describes how he depicted some fans as happy and others not when creating this panel that appears in a 10-page comic book on the Chatham Colored All-Stars who won Chatham's first Ontario Baseball Association championship in 1934, during a presentation at the Chatham-Kent Public Library in Chatham, Ont. on Saturday April 27, 2019. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)

The story of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars and their historic effort to win Chatham’s first Ontario Baseball Association championship will be introduced to a new, younger audience.

A 10-page comic book that tells the story of the team’s victory over the Penetang Shipbuilders was unveiled Saturday during a presentation by cartoonist Scott Chantler at the Chatham-Kent Public Library.

Chantler, who created the book with the help of University of Windsor history department staff Heidi Jacobs and Miriam Wright, originally penned a four-panel comic strip that he said told the bare-bones story of the team and their final game. He also designed baseball cards featuring the team’s players.

Cartoonist Scott Chantler describes how he depicted some fans as happy and others not when creating this panel that appears in a 10-page comic book on the Chatham Coloured All-Stars who won Chatham’s first Ontario Baseball Association championship in 1934, during a presentation at the Chatham-Kent Public Library in Chatham, Ont. on Saturday April 27, 2019. (Ellwood Shreve/Chatham Daily News)

He said Jacobs told him, “People really love that comic strip; we should we do a longer version.”

Chantler said the comic book covers the final championship game and some of the issues faced by the team of all black players.

“It also gets in the early pages into some of the racial discrimination that the team would have faced just travelling around to the games,” he said. “I wanted that context in there.”

Jacobs said the comic book is an offshoot of the Breaking the Colour Barrier: Wilfred “Boomer” Harding & the Chatham Coloured All-Stars (1932-1939) project. That project includes oral histories of the team, along with digitized newspaper coverage, including articles from The Chatham Daily News.

“This is sort of part two. We wanted to find ways to get this story out there in a broader sense,” Jacobs said.

Pat Harding, daughter-in-law of “Boomer” Harding, said she was moved by the panels showing the the players receiving a “hero’s’ welcome” when returning to Chatham.

She compiled an extensive scrap book of the team from old photos and newspaper stories that are a big part of the Breaking the Colour Barrier project. While doing that, she said it really opened her eyes to the prejudice the team members endured.

“So to see the acceptance at any level was very moving to me,” Harding said.

Her husband, Blake Harding, said his father spoke of the team riding on a fire truck coming through Chatham after arriving home from winning the championship.

“That parade brought the community together. They didn’t care if they were black or if they were white,” Harding said.

A new comic book by cartoonist Scott Chantler tells the story of the 1934 Chatham Coloured All-Stars, who were the first black team to win an Ontario Baseball Amateur Association championship.

He noted his father took it as something the players deserved “and he was proud of it.”

Harding said some team members, including his father and uncle Andrew Harding, also took this experience and parlayed it into good jobs.

Despite both having Grade 12 educations from the former Chatham Vocational School, Harding said his father and uncle “couldn’t get a job except being shoe-shine boys and bell hops at the William Pitt Hotel” prior to winning this championship.

He said being part of the team got them job references that resulted in his dad becoming Chatham’s first black postal carrier and his uncle getting hired as the first black police officer in Chatham and Ontario.

“They took advantage of that, along with their education, to push for something better.”

Harding is pleased with the comic book.

“I think it’s fantastic,” he said. “If you know the story and you know the history, it means a lot.”

Copies of the comic book will be distributed to schools and libraries. There are also copies available for sale at the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society at the WISH Centre. The cost is $5.

Harding would like to see the comic book shared in local schools, noting the university has developed lesson plans for the teachers.